17 October 2010

A teacher should promote Questioning Techniques for Skills Development

Why asking questions?:For testing understanding,Reinforcement of information,For motivation to arouse curiosity or ,To encourage independent thinking
Types of Questioning:There are high order questions where people will be forced to think deeply ,reason to explore or analyse.And low order questions just for people to recall.As a teacher have you never count the number of questions you have asked in a class period.Do you know how many questions pupils have asked you in the same lesson.
Questions are statements from which a reply is expected and same questions are answered quickly ,for example "what is your name?"Whilst some maybe answered differently as time passes ,for instance "What do you want to do for your life's sake?"
Whilst questions are tools for instructions requiring different types of responses ,they also confront pupils with challenges when questioned.Questions require demostrations and justfication of knowledge or beliefs.
The responses "I don't know" or "I don't want to answer" are usually not acceptable in the classroom and often pupils feel bad when they fail to respond correctly.
Many times teachers pay attention to recall learning which requires pupils to simply recall information or memorise.They may neglect the higher level of thinking that direct pupils to define or refine relationships between ideas drawn from inference, explaining the facts or to make judgements from the generalisations ,interprete ,analyse,applies to given understanding of new situations and create new ideas ,all of which are necessary for the development of critical thinking .Teachers also avoid effective aspects of learning these are critical for analysing and justifying a way of learning ,which direct pupils to make judgements and consider values ,attitudes ,feelings,interests ,beliefs and motions they have influences of their actions.
There is a growing concern that schools have not been developed citizens that may make reflective decisions on their own right. About those things that concern them and the society at large .They neglect the higher order of thinking and any child can use these different types of thought processes.
Given the opportunity students of all ages to do a study of investigate,analyse and evaluate their environment.But some teachers don't believe that students can reason at different levels of thinking and as such they are not willing to lead them intto thinking in the same way. Similary teachers who don't have experience of using different type of question should rely on easily presented or recalling questions . Such an approach doesn't train the skills of making use of data to solve problems consider values and determine proper actions .
Higher levels of thinking are required if pupils are to solve problems which demand reflective decision making.To develop these skills teachers need to give pupils the opprtunity to think for themselves and by asking and responding to the questions that go beyond recall of information that has been presented to them.
Teachers should also encourage pupils to think critically by guiding them in forming concepts and generalization when developing skills and choosing values that they can use in life ,giving them the freedom to raise questions and interests that concerns them. Hence both teachers and learners make use questions effectively in the education process to help themselves to develop and use critical thinking abilities.
Purposes of questions,in the classroom are used for a number of purposes and the following will help teacher to expand their use of questioning instructions:
♦To develop processes of thinking and guide enquiry in decision making.Acquire and clarify information to answer concerns and develop skills .
♦To determine the knowledge students bring into the classroom so lessons can be made to meet their demands and provide them with motivation of learning which encourages active participation in learning.Pupils to consider new ideas to make use of ideas already made and help to clarify their ideas ,structures of their ideas and learn about new things. Encourage students to ask their own questions .Information from them help to judge their performance and understanding.
♦To provoke students and teachers to share ideas.Challenge their beliefs and guide for reconsiderations or guide reconsideration of values that pupils may know, would help teachers to assess the effectiveness of their teaching profession in the teaching and learning situations.

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